Jennie, I can't help with your climate questions, but snap peas are wonderful fresh. Since you've never grown them before, you could always start small and see what you think before committing a large space to them. But if you've got the space available, definitely go for it. (As for the weather, if you're only talking a couple dollars for a packet of seeds, try it and see what you get -- if they don't grow well, save the rest of the pack for late winter/early spring and see if that works better.) As far as support, I've grown dwarf snap peas in containers with an inexpensive tomato cage (the flimsy WM kind) in the middle to help get them started. They do cling to each other, but they also cling to the wire cage and I think this helps them withstand wind a bit better. For harvesting, snap peas are eaten whole -- you eat both the pod and the peas inside, all at once. The pods are nice and crunchy when raw. You can also add them to stir-frys or just steam them as a side dish. We tend to mostly eat them raw in our house. They are one of those "pick a handful while out in the garden and eat half of them before you get back to the kitchen" kind of veggies. :) Good luck! Kathy

"I have a line of Sugar Magnolia that gives quite a few hyper-tendril plants. I would breed away from this trait, it has too many negatives for overall production." Glad to hear someone has tried that variant before I did. What were the negatives? Low yield per plant is not necessarily a negative, nor is the hypertendril trait, if the plants are short enough to plant without support. As long as you don't mind bending over to harvest, that is. I grow "Sugar Lace", which is also hypertendril. The plants are short & support each other, which makes them suitable for wide rows. It is the only PVP vegetable that I grow, which given how I feel about patenting food plants, shows how much I enjoy the pod quality. I've ruled out trying the parsley trait, I already grow one of Alan's parsley leaf shelling peas, (also purple, perhaps from the same breeding program) and it is "not ready for prime time", so to speak. The plants tend to topple in a strong wind or when loaded with pods, leading to too much pod damage. Still trying to select it for something useful, but since I only grow it every other year or so, progress is slow. All else being equal, though, I prefer pole varieties of almost anything where I have that choice. It makes harvest easier, and keeps the pods further out of reach from bugs & rodents. The downside of that is having to set up & tear down trellises, and having to spend time training reluctant climbers.

Thanks, guys! I ended up being gone most of the day so didn't get to do much more searching. Seedmama, I'm with you! As Carol mentioned, I was only there to throw my children to the lions, er, the Mississippi. The three oldest boys did it and, together, raised over $1,000 -- all going to benefit the Special Olympics. Two of the boys are also in the middle of a Klondike campout with their Boy Scout troop this weekend. They slept out in 20* weather last night and again tonight, got snowed & iced on, and still managed to do the Plunge. I was so proud -- and cold! (I'll link the blog post with the videos below.) Hubby and I were having a little marital smack talk while waiting for the boys to change out of their wet clothes. He suggested that he and I do it next year. He'd be a caveman and he, being a chivalrous fella, would be so kind as to drag me, his cavewoman, in & out of the water by my hair. Long story short, I told him I was in as long as he promised to wear a loin cloth -- and nothing else. And wouldn't you know it? There were witnesses. Witnesses who are on the staff of the event and also happen to know us -- our names & where we live. We will be held to this. So, by this time next year, I'll have changed my identity and moved to a different country. Diane Here is a link that might be useful: Polar Plunge

Hi daimonic, Are the 20 X 8 X 8 boxes youre talking about planting the peas in window box type boxes? 20" long by 8" wide and deep? Thats not going to be a lot of soil for planting something like peas in, but if you use a good quality mix, you may be able to do it. If you have Hyponex, I real seriously recommend you go out and buy something else. I had always heard that Hyponex was no good, but until I read your link, I never knew it has sedge peat in it. Thats pretty much equivalent to planting something in sludge. Since you dont have much space and wont be able to plant very much, you want to do everything you can to be sure what you can put in does well, and having good soil is the most important thing you can do to be successful. You should be able to buy good potting soils in large bags at any "real" garden center," and its usually not all that expensive. And youll be able to use it over and over, so its not like wasted money. I use Sunshine Mix for everything, which I buy by the bale at a garden center. A bale can last 2 to 3 years, and I think it cost something between $20 and $30. But a couple big bags should be plenty for you. Sunshine has all different kinds of mixes that they sell in bales, and Im not sure what they sell in bags, but Im sure whatever it is, its a good, basic mix that will work for pretty much anything. The reason you need a "good" mix is because roots need both water and oxygen. With a mix that has sedge peat in it, it will stay saturated, excluding the oxygen, and the roots will rot. A good mix, with a lot of Canadian sphagnum peat will hold the moisture, but allow excess water to drain off. Analogize it to a sponge! If you saturate it and lay it on the edge of something, the extra water will run out of it, but it will stay wet. Thats what you want your potting mix to do. I think you mentioned up above that you have the trays that go under your boxes. DONT use them. If theres water standing in them, the soil will also stay saturated. With such a small volume of soil, youll probably need to water them every, or at least every other day, but thats a completely different animal than keeping the "saucer" full of water. And the heat could definitely be a problem. Thats why I was suggesting putting them where theyd get the morning sun if you can. Afternoon sun is going to heat them up a lot more, and since the boxes are above ground and exposed to ambient temperatures, theyre already going to be warmer than something planted in the ground. Anything you can do to insulate the soil from the heat, or reflect the sun away from it will help some. Regarding the phosphorus, the easiest way to quickly add phosphorus is to use a "blossom booster" fertilizer. If youre not familiar with fertilizers, they all have an "analysis" on the package. Thats 3 numbers somewhere on the package that tell you how much of what nutrients are in that particular fertilizer. The middle number is the amount of phosphorus. Phosphorus is the stuff that promotes blooms, and, subsequently, fruit and seeds. Nitrogen is the stuff that promotes lots of green foliageandI can never remember exactly what good potash isbut it is!!! (Im sure some of the chemists around here will have something to add about potash!) Since potting mixes dont contain ANY fertilizer (unless you buy one that has some added), youll probably need to use something, and, as far as Im concerned, using a water soluble fertilizer is the easiest way to do it. So buy a small package of any "high middle number" fertilizer that you can dissolve inusually a gallon ofwater, and water the peas with it. I use 20-20-20 for everything! I like things simple! ;-) And for most of my life I used Peters brand, but then Peters was bought out by MiracleGro and (wonder of wonders) the quality deteriorated, so "Peter," who had sold his companyand his nameto MiracleGro, started to make his original product againthis time calling it Jacks! So now I buy Jacks! When it was Peters, he used to have different formulations, including a blossom booster, but Im not sure if Jacks does or notif you can find it, I recommend it. If you cant, get almost any brandexcept MiracleGro! MiracleGro falls pretty much into the same category as Hyponex in my opinion. I dont know that using this type of phosphorus would be anymore "effective" than bone meal, but its simple to use, and faster acting than bone meal. (As Steve says, you want it sooner than in the next decade!) Heres a blurb about fertilizer formulations I copied: What do the numbers really mean? The first thing to understand when selecting fertilizers is the chemical composition code labeled on the container. These numbers are almost always listed as a sequence of 3 numbers, such as 30-10-10, or 10-50-10. NITROGEN (N) - The first number in the sequence specifies the nitrogen content of the fertilizer. and is given as a percentage. Nitrogen promotes vegetative growth in plants. PHOSPHORUS (P) - The second number in the sequence specifys the phosphorus content of the fertilizer. Phosphorus promotes flowering. Fertilizers labeled with disproportionately high amounts of phosphorus are sometimes labeled as "bloom booster". SOLUBLE POTASH (K) - The third number in the chemical sequence referrs to % soluble potash, K2O, contained in the fertilizer. A fertilizer labeled as 30-10-10 would contain 30% nitrogen, 10% phosphate, and 10% soluble potash, and would generally be used during a plants active growth cycle. While a fertilizer labeled as 10-50-10, would contain 10% nitrogen, 50% phosphate, and 10% soluble potash, and would typically be used prior to and during a plants blooming season. How are your peas doing? Be sure you leave them outside, unprotected for a couple nights before you actually plant them into the boxes. Have fun, Skybird P.S. Stop apologizing for asking questions! Thats what RMG is here for! :-)